International Chefs Day has a clear protagonist at our Mexican restaurant Chapulin: Chef José Luis Sánchez Ronquillo. His approach blends respect for Mexico’s regional pantry with refined technique. Each meal becomes a storytelling act that honors water, earth, and fire—the elemental pillars guiding the restaurant’s renewed menu and identity.
Honoring chef José Sánchez Ronquillo at a Mexican gourmet restaurant
Every October 20th, the world pauses to honor the creative minds behind our favorite dishes on International Chefs Day. In Mexico City, few chefs embody the spirit of Mexican cuisine like José Luis Sánchez Ronquillo, executive chef of the gourmet restaurant Chapulin, a standout Mexican restaurant nestled in the heart of Polanco.
Contemporary Mexican cuisine: philosophy and the three elements
Chef Sánchez Ronquillo’s vision for Chapulin centers on three elemental forces. Water represents the flavors of the coasts, earth highlights the comal and ancestral techniques, and fire brings smoky, charred notes to many Mexican classics. This triad is elevated by a Contemporany Mexican cuisine view.
The chef draws on formal training and worldly experience to execute this vision. Trained at renowned culinary schools and honed in kitchens from Japan to Spain, Sánchez Ronquillo brings technical precision without losing the warmth and soul of Mexican home cooking.
Signature dishes and guest experience at Chapulin restaurant
Our restaurant Chapulin offers plates that speak to provenance. Oysters are dressed with bright coastal salsas, tostadas are crowned with yellowfin tuna and mango, and generous antojitos like the Barbacoa Sonorense Tacos highlight each region’s particular voice while fitting the three-element story.
The service and staging at Chapulin support this narrative. From a cool raw bar to a clay comal and a live-fire grill, the dining room is organized so guests travel through textures and temperatures as the meal progresses.
Sánchez Ronquillo also emphasizes techniques like tatemado and comal cooking, reclaiming traditional practices and elevating them with refined timing and seasoning. That insistence on craft gives Chapulin its distinctive rhythm: familiar flavors rendered with uncommon care.
Why visit restaurants in Mexico City like Chapulin on International Chefs Day?
Visiting restaurants in Mexico City, like Chapulin, on this day is a way to taste that celebration in practice: a menu that credits farmers, fishers and charcoal cooks; a kitchen that foregrounds technique and stewardship; and a chef whose career spans Michelin kitchens and Mexican hearths, now focused on a contemporary, respectful expression of national cuisine.
Salud! Toast to International Chefs Day at a Mexican restaurant
Celebrate the day by tasting a cuisine that treats tradition as a living, evolving craft under the steady hand of a chef who believes that fire, earth and water are not just ingredients but the language of Mexico on a plate.
Book your table and enjoy the authentic flavors of a Mexican restaurant!
